To the Editor:
This November Old Lyme will be having a municipal election. Either the incumbent Bonnie Reemsnyder, a Democrat, will prevail, or Judith Read, a Republican, will become First Selectwoman.
I am a native born resident of Old Lyme, and have happy memories of spending summers riding my bike, having ice cream at James Pharmacy ( a dime bought you a generous scoop of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry), and listening to katydids.. Old Lyme is a special place where civility and responsible citizenship can still prevail, and change is slow and measured ever since it was established as a “plantation” in the 1665 Loving Parting agreement with Saybrook Colony.
In my opinion, civility and openness is needed more than ever in this forthcoming election. It troubles me when I hear sotto voce that Bonnie did nothing about possible train tracks running through the center of town, or cares nothing about our beach communities, or about improvements on Halls Road. I have been at meetings convened by our First Selectwoman at which these serious matters were discussed. The 85 page report sent to the DOT attests to her hard work at getting qualified professionals to weigh in on a poorly conceived route for express train tracks.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if we went back to the League of Women Voters forums (remember them?) where the candidates outline specific plans for the Town, not what evil things the other candidate has done to destroy the Town. Perhaps we could get national news coverage which would be beamed directly to Capital Hill in Washington. Old Lyme could even set a trend for problem-solving. As my grandchildren might say “what a concept”.
Sincerely,
Alison C. Mitchell,
Old Lyme.
Alison Mitchell wrote:
“where the candidates outline specific plans for the Town, not what evil things the other candidate has done to destroy the Town”
…. a concept that needs to be adopted nationally – not just locally or in neighborhoods. Present day discussions do seem to center on negativity. Maybe we all should refuse to even think any negative thoughts and just maybe the positive vibes could prevail?
My grandson in Charlottesville wrote this after the recent uprising:
“What you aren’t seeing on the news media: the hundreds – no, thousands of people who were there, on the ground, bringing medical care, sunscreen, water bottles, washing off chemical attacks, giving hugs, singing songs of peace, truly showing forth God’s love in this hurting world! What else didn’t you see? You didn’t see how respectfully people were parking, keeping our narrow downtown roads (all colonial, I believe) cleared so ambulances could rush where they needed to go – all day long. You didn’t see how perfect strangers would form small groups so that everyone could get back to their cars or bus stops safely.”
“While I pray that my town will never again have to suffer through another such outpouring of pure hatred (and this was the 2nd this summer!!), I am beyond proud of how the Lord used us and moved through us to show the kind of GOOD people that live in this town!”